Resurrection

I have been cooking, but not as much. I haven't been blogging at all.

But, I made something very cool, and wanted to post about it. I made an almost healthy version of a Spanish tortilla. For the uninitiated, the spanish tortilla is in the omelette/ savory egg custard dish family, but unlike an omelette, quiche or fritatta, the Spanish tortilla does not have cheese. It usually has potatoes, and sometimes has peppers and chorizo. I have seen one version in a local Spanish restaurant with cheese melted over the top, but that is unusual, and there is no cheese in the actual tortilla.

I just wish I had used a 10 inch skillet instead of a 12 inch. I don't have a nice 10 inch nonstick skillet. I love my new 12 inch one, but the tortilla came out a little thinner than I would have liked. It was still very good. The kids loved it.

I loosely followed this recipe, but instead of using potatoes, I used cauliflower. It was incredibly good. Cauliflower are even the right color to substitute potatoes, and the texture and flavor worked out perfectly.

Crispy salmon skin!

I have been eating a lot of smoked fish, particularly salmon and trout. I generally don't eat the skin, and have been giving it to my pets.

I had a lovely piece of salmon skin today, and I thought of tasty crunchy salmon skin sushi rolls I have enjoyed in the past. So, I sliced the skin into thin strips, heated some olive oil in a small pan, and threw the salmon skin in. It spattered a lot. And, whoa, Nelly! It's delicious!

Sorry, pets.

Yes, wow, I still have a food blog!

Holy moly, it has been a while. I have cooked and eaten lots. But, I've also been really busy with the last year of medical school and the whole single mom thing.

I'll post some pics and a retrospective soon. But, in the meantime, let's talk anti-inflammatory diet. And pine nuts.

I may have an autoimmune inflammatory disease. Well, actually, I definitely do. I have psoriasis. But, I also may have had a small flare of psoriatic arthritis. And it may not have been my first.

So, one of my ways of approaching this is to reform my diet a bit. Get me more almost healthy. Get it? Get it? The title means so much. I am going to try to adhere more to the whole anti-inflammatory diet thing. The anti-inflammatory diet has elements of a lot of other eating programs that purport to improve health: avoid processed and simple carbs, increase vegetables, increase good fats, increase fish and lean meats, and emphasize antioxidant rich plant foods.

It also helps out hat I already like these foods. I just went to Costco and bought a bunch of smoked fish, and a huge bag of pine nuts.

Today,so far, I had a salad made from my friend's home grown butter crunch lettuce, smoked salmon fillet, flaked, and toasted pine nuts. I made a simple dressing with agave and soy sauce. I figured the salmon and pine nuts were oily enough that I didn't need extra oil in the dressing. It was delicious.

I had a bowl of a close approximation of this Indian spiced carrot ginger soup, which was also delicious. I put toasted pine nuts on top.

I also made a batch of an approximation of this Cabbage Crunch salad. As you may have guessed, I substituted toasted pine nuts for the almonds and sesame seeds.

I also made fresh basil and parsley pesto last week. I still have more pine nuts.

*Dusts cobwebs off*

I have been cooking. I swear.

I have just been really, really, really busy. Med school will do that to ya.

Anyway, I will try to post some pics and some tastiness soon. Now, on to making cookies and steak fried rice:)

Recent foodie-ness

I went to the Chocolate Festival at Fairchild Tropical Botanic Gardens yesterday. It was great. I am mildly tempted to try to enter the chocolate cake or cupcake competition next year, but it seems to be more of a decorating contest than a taste contest. Decorating isn't my strongest point.

I got to see Hedy Goldsmith from Michael's Genuine Food and Drink do a cooking demo. I am totally going to try the Milk Chocolate Jellies. S is a jellies nut. I am a Michaels' Genuine nut. I was so happy when they opened here. For a major city with no shortage of restaurants, there was a real dearth of excellent food. I was not surprised to read they won a James Beard award last year. Hedy, the pastry chef, was fun to listen to and gave good demo. She not only makes killer doughnuts and pop tarts, she also has a great personality.

Interestingly enough, I have found blogs called Almost Healthy and Foodie Loves Picky. Both were started after my blog and my blog name change. Do you know how I know? I did what these bloggers evidently didn't do. I googled the names before I used them.

I don't care all that much. I am not making any money off this blog, and I only post about once a month now. I just, well, I don't know. I don't think they stole the names, and I don't think they are going to make any money off of them, either. I kind of wish they had done a little searching first before they picked those titles.

If I ever do try to do any cooking for money, ever, which is a not-so-secret dream of mine, I am planning on using the name "Almost Healthy". I have said that on this blog before, and I am repeating it now. Just in case.

Let the baking orgy begin!

I made three pounds of spiced nuts tonight. There will be six more pounds made, at least, by the time Christmas rolls around.



I combined two recipes, one from Smitten Kitten, and one from America's Test Kitchen, and made three pounds of almonds at once. I chose to make almonds, because even though I like pecans, not everyone does.

So, here is my finagled recipe for...

Sweet and salty rum spiced nuts

1/3 cup light brown sugar
2/3 cup granulated white sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
1 egg white
1 tablespoon dark rum (can be substituted with water)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 pound whole raw almonds, unsalted

Preheat oven to 300, and line a cookie sheet with parchment paper

Mix the ingredients from the brown sugar to the allspice in a medium bowl, breaking up any clumps

Beat the egg white, run and vanilla together in a large bowl with a whisk until frothy.

Add the almonds to the egg white mixture and toss until coated. Dump the sugar mixture into the almonds and mix until evenly coated. Spread the nuts on the baking sheet and bake for 30 minutes. Remove from oven, and let cool on the baking sheet, breaking apart any nuts that are stuck together as they cool.

Yum.

Belated Thanksgiving post

Sorry it took so long to get up the Thanksgiving post!

Thanksgiving was mellow this year. I didn't have the kids. I made dinner for my mom, my brother, his wife, and her parents. It was fairly simple.

My mom got chorizo that she didn't end up using for stuffing. I put some of it in my stuffing, but there was enough left over to make spur of the moment chorizo stuffed mushrooms. They were delish.



I made an herbed butter to put under the skin of the turkey.



The rest of the dinner was pretty basic. I made a gravy with the neck, since the turkey had no giblets. (!! I know!) I made fresh cranberry sauce. I also made fresh whipped cream with fruit for dessert. The guests brought the other sides.